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THE WALAM OLUM: ITS CONTENTS.

_From The Lenape and their Legends by Daniel G. Brinton (1884)_
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_General Synopsis of the WALAM OLUM._
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The myths embodied in the earlier portion of the WALAM OLUM are
perfectly familiar to one acquainted with Algonkin mythology. They are
not of foreign origin, but are wholly within the cycle of the most
ancient legends of that stock. Although they are not found elsewhere
in the precise form here presented, all the figures and all the
leading incidents recur in the native tales picked up by the Jesuit
missionaries in the seventeenth century, and by Schoolcraft, McKinney,
Tanner and others in later days.

In an earlier chapter I have collected the imperfect fragments of
these which we hear of among the Delawares, and these are sufficient
to show that they had substantially the same mythology as their
western relatives.

The cosmogony describes the formation of the world by the Great
Manito, and its subsequent despoliation by the spirit of the waters,
under the form of a serpent. The happy days are depicted, when men
lived without wars or sickness, and food was at all times abundant.
Evil beings, of mysterious power, introduced cold and war and sickness
and premature death. Then began strife and long wanderings.

However similar this general outline may be to European and Oriental
myths, it is neither derived originally from them, nor was it acquired
later by missionary influence. This similarity is due wholly to the
identity of psychological action, the same ideas and fancies arising
from similar impressions in New as well as Old World tribes. No sound
ethnologist, no thorough student in comparative mythology, would seek
to maintain a genealogical relation of cultures on the strength of
such identities. They are proofs of the oneness of the human mind and
nothing more

As to the historical portion of the document, it must be judged by
such corroborative evidence as we can glean from other sources. I have
quoted, in an earlier chapter, sufficient testimony to show that the
Lenape had traditions similar to these, extending , back for
centuries, or at least believed by their narrators to reach that far.
What trust can be reposed in them is for the archaeologist to judge.

Authentic history tells us nothing about the migrations of the Lenape
before we find them in the valley of the Delaware. There is no
positive evidence that they arrived there from the west; still less
concerning their earlier wanderings.

Were I to reconstruct their ancient history from the WALAM OLUM, as I
understand it, the result would read as follows:--

At some remote period their ancestors dwelt far to the northeast,
on tide-water, probably at Labrador (Compare ante, p. 145). They
journeyed south and west, till they reached a broad water, full of
islands and abounding in fish, perhaps the St. Lawrence about the
Thousand Isles. They crossed and dwelt for some generations in the
pine and hemlock regions of New York, fighting more or less with
the Snake people, and the Talega, agricultural nations, living in
stationary villages to the southeast of them, in the area of Ohio
and Indiana. They drove out the former, but the latter remained on
the upper ohio and its branches. The Lenape, now settled on the
streams in Indiana, wished to remove to the East to join the
Mohegans and other of their kin who had moved there directly from
northern New York. They, therefore, united with the Hurons
(Talamatans) to drive out the Talega (Tsalaki, Cherokees) from the
upper Ohio. This they only succeeded in accomplishing finally in
the historic period (see ante p. 17). But they did clear the road
and reached the Delaware valley, though neither forgetting nor
giving up their claims to their western territories (see ante p.
144). In the sixteenth century the Iroquois tribes seized and
occupied the whole of the Susquehanna valley, thus cutting off the
eastern from the western Algonkins, and ended by driving many of
the Lenape from the west to the east bank of the Delaware (ante p.
38).
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_Synopsis of the separate parts._
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I.

The formation of the universe by the Great Manito is described. In the
primal fog and watery waste he formed land and sky, and the heavens
cleared. He then created men and animals. These lived in peace and joy
until a certain evil Manito came, and sowed discord and misery. This
canto is a version of the Delaware tradition mentioned in the
Heckewelder MSS. which I have given previously, p. 135. The notion of
the earth rising from the primal waters is strictly a part of the
earliest Algonkin mythology, as I have amply shown in previous
discussions of the subject. See my Myths of the New World, p. 213, and
American Hero Myths, Chap. II.

II.

The Evil Manito, who now appears under the guise of a gigantic
serpent, determines to destroy the human race, and for that purpose
brings upon them a flood of water. Many perish, but a certain number
escape to the turtle, that is, to solid land, and are there protected
by Nanabush (Manibozho or Michabo). They pray to him for assistance,
and he caused he water to disappear, and the great serpent to depart.
This canto is a brief reference to the conflict between the Algonkin
hero god and the serpent of the waters, originally, doubtless, a
meteorological myth. It is an ancient and authentic aboriginal legend,
shared both by Iroquois and Algonkins, under slightly different forms.
In one aspect, it is the Flood or Deluge Myth. For the general form of
this myth. see my Myths of the New World, pp. 119, 143, 182, and
American Hero Myths, p. 50, and authorities there quoted also, E. G.
Squier, " Manabozho and the Great Serpent; an Algonquin Tradition," in
the American Review, Vol. II, Oct., 1848.

III.

The waters having disappeared, the home of the tribe is described as
in a cold northern clime. This they concluded to leave in search of
warmer lands. Having divided their people into a warrior and a
peaceful class, they journeyed southward, toward what is called the
"Snake land." They approached this land in winter, over a frozen
river. Their number was large, but all had not joined in the
expedition with equal willingness, their members at the west
preferring their ancient seats in the north to the uncertainty of
southern conquests. They, however, finally united with the other
bands, and they all moved south to the land of spruce pines.
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References

1. http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/default.htm
2. http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/comfever.html
3. http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/walami.html
4. http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/walamc.html